


a portion of thyself

by leashy_bebes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-09
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-20 18:12:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/588245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leashy_bebes/pseuds/leashy_bebes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As soon as you see the necklace, you know. It's perfect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a portion of thyself

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the following Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only true gift is a portion of thyself.

As soon as you see the necklace, you know. It's perfect. The warmth of the slender gold chain, the luminous glow of the blue-green crystal that hangs from it on a series of links so fine as to be almost invisible. Someone bumps into you as you stand on the cold pavement, the after-work shoppers starting to bulk up the crowds. You barely notice, your eyes tracing the line of the necklace, picturing the way it would fall over the delicate shape of her collarbones, the way her elegant fingers might trace the irregular smoothness of the crystal.

A few months ago the two of you had a couple of nights in Paris, her en route to visit her sister, you using up the last of your paid holiday from work. Part of you had wanted nothing more than you, her, champagne, and all the hours you could steal. But more than that, you wanted to be different from the string of men (father, brother, husband) who see her as decorative, a pretty bauble. You took her to the Monet exhibit, and even though you had to change your face, you felt like you were glowing when she stuck close to you among the Muggles, when she looked up at you with laughing eyes and tucked her hand into the crook of your arm. You remember how she stood before the painting of Venice's Grand Canal with unshed tears in her eyes.

"It's so beautiful," she'd said, and love like you'd never known swept through you. No one else knew her like this. Her husband would never see her with tears in her eyes over the beauty rendered by a Muggle artist.

The crystal catches the light from the setting sun and flares, throwing the delicacy of the chain into sharp relief. _He_ would never give her something like this. Her jewels from him are emeralds and diamonds, set in platinum and antique silver, and they come from a vault. You are sure he has never walked down the street and been stopped in his tracks by the thought of her, by the memory of a perfect moment spent in her arms.

You buy the necklace, don't even care that you get overcharged. It's packed away for you in a white box lined with silk, slipped into a small square bag that you can't help checking as you carry on with your shopping trip, picking up things for family and friends, and they all pale in comparison to the necklace. It is all you can think of.

Christmas time is difficult. You are expected with your family, and she has no choice but to be with hers. Greedy, grasping notions aside, you wouldn't change that. Her smile when she talks about her son is one of the things you love best about her. Still, you cannot deny a surge of jealousy when you visit her family with your Grandmother on Christmas Eve. You have always been fascinated by her, always wondered why that was. Even when you were much younger, you couldn't help but notice that she seems restrained by her station in life, that there is a sadness, a disappointment in her eyes.

(Not when she's with you.)

Over brandy and her husband's casual dismissal of you as irrelevant, you find snatched moments to look at her, to receive a smile that makes you want to blush because it's far too personal, too real. She catches your eye and touches the high neck of her gown, her fingers avoiding the heavy platinum chain that adorns it. When she turns her head away to look out of the window, you see a flash of pale gold hidden away next to her skin and you smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted [HERE](http://hp-unfaithful.livejournal.com/76710.html) @lj


End file.
